Welcome! We hope you enjoy following the restoration process of a 1918 Curtiss JN4D Jenny.
Once completed, the aeroplane will be flown and displayed at the Candler Field Museum in Williamson GA (30 miles south of Atlanta).
You can contact me below by clicking on "VIEW MY PROFILE"

Monday, April 12, 2010

Aileron Control Fan & Wheels

We got back from vacation Friday and the kids noticed a box on the front porch. Assuming it was for them, they opened it up.

Puzzled and perplexed, they wondered who ordered such a strange toy? "What in the world is this?" Brighton asked me.

I had sent the rims to Buchannan's Spoke and Rim Co. in Azusa, CA for re-spoking. They replaced all the rusty spokes with new stainless ones and trued the rims. I was very happy with their work. The rims will be painted a a later date.

Finished working on the aileron control fan this weekend. I was fortunate enough to have an original Jenny fan (left side of the picture) loaned to me by fellow Jenny restorer Phil Mintari so I could take measurements for my undrilled virgin casting.

The slot with the hole is where the aileron cable fits.

The way I did this was to drill a 1/4 in hole at the proper angle.

And I ground the slot with the die grinder and the Dremel tool. I'm sure a true machinist out there will cringe when they see this, but the method worked really well.

Here is a photo of the finished slot.

The other aileron cable travels along the other side of the casting, so a slot had to be cut there as well.

This is an original Jenny piece that Rich Davidson at Lee Bottom Airport found on an old, bent original fan. The fan itself was not usable, but the clamp was good and Rich graciously let me have it.

The clamp holds the aileron cables in place.

Here is the entire thing after drilling, grinding and bead blasting. It is now painted with primer and after final fitting, it will be painted black.